two, twenty-two
by signelchan
Summary: Life requires a whole lot of luck and many tiny coincidences coming together all at once to shape how it ultimately ends up. As love's a part of life, it has the same requirements, all of which won't always fall together the way anyone expects them to.
So many things in life can be credited to being little coincidences, random happenings that fall the way that they do simply because that's how they're ultimately meant to end up. Who one picks as their best friends, how such different people come together to form ultimate bonds, are situations that require a lot of luck and many tiny coincidences coming together all at once; after all, the people have to just end up in the same place at the same time for their relationship to start.

Maybe it could be chalked up to coincidence that it was Lissa that was home that day when Maribelle came begging for moral support in a dilemma she'd found herself in, or maybe it was fate, but there was no calling it an accident that she ended up talking to her future girlfriend about her torn heart over her boyfriend's suggestion to invite someone new into their relationship. If things had fallen any other way, and it had been Chrom home instead, it would have been quite likely that he would have ended up joining the relationship (as Maribelle's boyfriend had actually been hoping for, much to her disdain), but instead it was her and her heart that won the day and the right to saying she had a boyfriend _and_ a girlfriend who loved her very much.

As for their feelings towards one another, that was a different story, but what mattered was that they both loved and supported their girlfriend more than anything else in the world. That meant sticking by her side through the good times and the bad, the rough and the easy, the times where she'd become condescending towards them both, and the times where she was overly affectionate. Maribelle had so much love to give from the depths of her heart that she really needed two significant others to shower with it, and she needed two significant others to love her right back.

For several years, the three of them grew not just as people, but as committed lovers in an abnormal relationship. It seemed that every day, there was some new aspect to the relationship for them to discover, despite the judgments they faced by the people around them. Knowing that he was almost a part of the relationship but had been rejected for his sister, Chrom automatically looked upon them with disdain, and so most of his friends did the same. Lissa and Maribelle shared almost every friend between them, and so they had grown accustomed to the two girls being together, as well as having a third person in their lives to spice things up. And Gaius, thanks to his criminal status in the world, didn't really have much in the way of friends that the girls didn't already know, so he was free from the judgment of outsiders.

It had initially been Gaius' idea to add a third person to the relationship, after having spent many months with Maribelle, and while he didn't get the person he had wanted, he had come to respect the decision that had been made on the matter. Sure, it was awkward for him after he'd developed some one-sided feelings for Chrom to get his younger sister involved instead, but in the years that followed, he came to rather appreciate Lissa's presence as a member of the relationship, even if she was almost exclusively devoted to Maribelle. As long as she backed off and gave him some alone time with his first girlfriend (which she always did), he was fine with her being there.

Of course, while those two were having their time together, Lissa was left on the outside, waiting to be told she was allowed back in. Since her and Gaius were both dating Maribelle but not each other, it would just be weird if she tried asking if she was allowed to be part of their private moments. Sometimes she was invited to join them, but it was always Maribelle's offer, which means that Lissa and Gaius were going to be on opposite sides of the romantic cuddling and kissing that was to follow, never having to interact with each other unless they both tried to get at Maribelle at the same time.

There had to be some reason why the pieces of fate had fallen so that these three were together, but as long as they kept with the mindset that it was only Maribelle who was allowed to have two lovers, there'd be no chance of discovering that reason.

* * *

From the moment that the news came to light that Maribelle was having a baby, tensions between her two significant others began to rise. Since the baby was obviously Gaius', he was trying to get to spend more and more time with Maribelle, pushing Lissa a bit out of the picture, which she was not happy with. "Just because I _can't_ have made that baby doesn't mean I shouldn't get to spend time with my girlfriend," she told Gaius right after he'd made what felt like the hundredth comment about why he deserved all the time with Maribelle in the world. "You're being totally unfair about this."

"No, I'm just making sure I'm taking care of the woman that I love," he replied, giving her a huge grin while she rolled her eyes at him. "Come on, you can't look at this and say, 'hey, I deserve time with her just for existing, even though that guy knocked her up.' Because, guess what, I deserve the time with her now."

"But I still need to get some time with her too!" Stomping her foot into the ground, Lissa's next move was to push Gaius and make things physical, but she was stopped before she even got the chance to lay a finger on him. With a soft whistle, Maribelle had made her entrance into the room known, and both of her lovers looked over at her, where she was beaming at them both, arms crossed before her.

"Oh, I simply love it when you two spend time together!" Her hands now clasping, Maribelle seemed absolutely ecstatic to see the sight before her, completely missing the part where they'd been arguing. "I hope that these sorts of times never change, even with the big changes happening here in this relationship! Why, I would think it would lovely if you two learned to share me better than you already do, although I do quite appreciate the one-on-one time I get with you both."

They looked at her, at how radiant and happy she looked, before looking between each other and simultaneously bursting into laughter. Despite the fact that Maribelle had no clue what they were finding so funny, she accepted it as them getting along still and wandered off to most likely prepare herself for another day filled with romantic escapades. This left the two standing there, laughing like they'd just heard the funniest joke in the world. "Man, Twinkles sure knows how to get a guy to laugh 'til he cries," Gaius said, actually wiping a tear from his eye. "She thinks we're spending time together?"

"I know, Maribelle seems to be so ignorant to what's actually going on here." Lissa took a deep breath, trying to collect herself and her laughter, but failed when a few stray giggles escaped her mouth. "It's like, she doesn't even realize that we totally don't get along, that we're both only here for her and not each other. Which is weird, because she's self-centered and all that."

Gaius nodded in agreement, before adding, "Bet it's something to do with the baby. Got her thinking about others aside from her for once."

"She's known about the baby for, like, a month at most. It's not because of the baby."

"That baby's going to do things to this relationship," he snapped back, putting his hand in Lissa's face with one finger raised, which he shook at her. "Just you watch."

* * *

It was early in the fall when Gaius' words came true, although not in the way that he'd been expecting them to. When he'd made his comment, he had done it out of anger at Lissa, wanting so badly to prove the younger blonde wrong when she acted like she knew his girlfriend better than he did. He had fully expected to find out at some point that Maribelle was having a change of personality just because of her physical state, and that she would eventually want to drop the whole "two lovers" thing and focus solely on spending the rest of her life with the father of her child. After all, what good was Lissa in the relationship, aside from being something else for Maribelle to waste time on?

He was very wrong in that assumption, as Maribelle could somehow love herself, her unborn child, Gaius, and Lissa all at once with the same ferocity, something that she made well-known with every time she pulled her two significant others into their bedroom just to talk to them about life as she currently experienced it. "I don't know why we never thought of having a child before this," she started, looking Gaius straight in the eyes with an excited smile on her face. "It's simply amazing to feel the little movements within me, the product of our love making its presence known in a way only I can feel, well, for now anyway." She arched her back a bit, pushing her rounded stomach out towards her boyfriend, as if beckoning for him to touch it.

But before he even had the chance to make his move, Lissa was jumping in front of him and putting both her hands on her girlfriend. "I wanna feel the baby move!" she chirped, knowing that behind her, Gaius was growing angry with what she had just done. "I know it's not mine, but I'm still super excited about it! I get to be second mom, right?"

"Of course, Lissa dearest, you're just as much a part of this family as Gaius and I are." Loving the feel of Lissa's hands on her, she laughed, placing a hand of her own on top of one of her girlfriend's. "Nothing will ever make that change, not on my watch. And since you and I cannot create a child together, I'm more than honored that you'd want to be considered the second mother for mine and Gaius' child."

"Don't I get a say in that matter?" Gaius asked, as he tried to push Lissa out from in front of him. "Can't the parenting of my kid be a two-person job, not one for the other girl here?"

Maribelle shook her head, although her smile didn't fade even slightly, as if she'd expected his reaction to be like this. "I'm sure if you had gotten your way and your preferred second lover had joined us as opposed to mine, you would be all about our child having three parents, and I would have allowed it if only because it made you happy. Won't you just accept Lissa as part of our family and allow this for me?"

"Yeah, yeah, if only because you're having the baby and I'd rather not face your wrath for saying no. Last thing I need is for you to take this out on me somehow." Still trying to move Lissa out of his way, he once again found himself staring straight into Maribelle's shining eyes, noting just how happy she seemed to hear him say that. It was enough to get him to give up on getting to touch his girlfriend's stomach, which was fine because he knew that he'd get other chances to do just that. "But just because I'm fine with her being part of the family doesn't mean I'm giving up all my one-on-one time with you, Twinkles."

"I didn't ask you to do such a thing," she replied, finally going back to a normal standing position and wrapping her arms around her stomach. "I think the baby likes when they get to spend time with their daddy like that. They certainly loved being touched by their second mother, that's for sure." After staring at her two lovers for a few minutes, not saying anything else, she kissed them both before leaving the room, telling them that she was going to do some online shopping for things for the little one and not to disturb her for anything.

Once she closed the door behind her, Gaius completely expected Lissa to get up from how she was laying across him, figuring that she was going to do something out on her own. He was shocked when he saw her look up at him, her eyes wide, and she said, "I need to have a baby too. Like, right now."

"That sounds like a personal problem there, Princess. What, you so jealous of your girlfriend that you need to steal her moment?" Despite his laughter at what he said, he was completely serious; the fact that Lissa's gaze had narrowed and she was now putting on what seemed to be some sort of a seductive smirk was concerning. "Oh gods, you're serious. Listen, we don't like each other, so can't you find someone else to do this with? I'm down for having kids with my sweet Maribelle, but not with you as well."

"You know that she would be thrilled to find out that her girlfriend is _also_ having a baby with her boyfriend. Would really make us a real family, I'd think." The smirk grew a tad, as Lissa began batting her eyelashes. "Pretty please? I want to be a second mom to her baby and I want her to be second mom to mine, and I want this right now."

Now Gaius might not have felt any sort of romantic inclinations towards Lissa, but he knew that Maribelle loved her just as much as she loved him, and so she had to be some sort of a decent person behind her childish and bratty demeanor. The one problem with this whole plan was, naturally, that after sleeping with her the one time in hopes of conceiving a sibling for Maribelle's child, he wanted to do it again—and she was more than willing to let him, all in the name of making that baby.

By the time it was all said and done, and their attempts finally had proven successful, the whole situation had gone from them just trying to appease Lissa's bout of jealousy to them actually enjoying being with each other. There was undeniable shock on Maribelle's face the first time she heard _her_ boyfriend tell _her_ girlfriend that he loved her, a shock that turned into pure joy that they were finally one big relationship. A relationship with two impending children that could potentially change things for the better or for the worse.

* * *

Within a year, they had gone from one woman with two lovers to a three-person relationship with two young children to raise. The boys, despite having two different mothers, looked closely enough like twins that people would stop to ask if they were, only for someone (typically Maribelle) to correct their mistake. "They're actually half-brothers, almost five months apart," she would always say, watching as the questioning person would shrink back in horror at the implications of the answer. In a town where a fair number of people were in relationships that were different from "the norm", it was still quite odd for people to wrap their heads around two women being attached to the same man, let alone as well as being attached to each other.

"I don't understand why so many people can't appreciate what we've got going here," she grumbled one night, while sitting with Gaius on one side and Lissa on the other, their children both laying on the floor before them. "What, is it really that strange? Would people feel the same way if their leader was part of this?"

"No, because if Chrom did something, everyone would tolerate it because they like him." Lissa's response was coupled with her leaning her head on Maribelle's shoulder, all while reaching across her to grab Gaius' hand. "But he played it safe and lame and married a guy and didn't get wrapped up in loving anyone else on top of that."

Laughing, all while taking hold of the hand being offered to him, Gaius added, "He could have gotten involved, but we got you instead. Can't say that's something I'm unhappy with, especially not after…" He trailed off as he looked down at the floor, focusing first on the smaller of the two kids, before moving on to the bigger, then back to the smaller. "…er, after we ended up with these two. Sure, just the one would've been nice, but all the best things have to come in twos."

"Like lovers." Maribelle didn't sound grumbly anymore, but her voice was still soft. "Lovers and anniversaries and even birthdays." Her eyes lighting up, she brought a hand to cover her mouth as she thought about what she had just said. "Oh gods, there's so much about us that deals with twos that I never even noticed! And here I was, thinking that it was completely coincidental that both my anniversaries with you two were on the twenty-second of a month, and that little Brady was born on the twenty-second of the second month, but…"

"You think of all that, but you forget that my birthday's the second day of the year, Twinkles," Gaius said, bumping his shoulder up against Maribelle. "I'm a little hurt you thought of the kid before you thought of me."'

If Maribelle did reply, she was drowned out by the sound of Lissa beginning to sputter in shock, eventually screaming out, "It gets worse! Add up the numbers for Owain's birthday! Seven plus fifteen, that's twenty-two, right? He couldn't hang on for the day itself, but that's close enough I think!"

A silence fell over the three, as the numerical coincidences sunk in a bit more, letting the only noise in the room be the two babbling children on the floor. But when someone went to speak to resume conversation, all three of them chose to speak at once, saying the exact same thing as if it had struck them all together: "Two plus six plus fourteen is twenty-two." It was Gaius who pointed at each person as they said their birthdate, while Maribelle seemed shocked to have come to the realization, and Lissa was just riding the same wave of surprise she'd been on since what she'd said about her child.

"This has gotten too weird," Gaius laughed, once they had all calmed down from their joint discovery. "Twinkles, Princess, let's promise right now we aren't going to keep letting this kind of thing happen. Take a vow that nothing's going to happen in pairs or whatever again." He was met with their silence, to which he jokingly added, "Unless it's to finish one of those thing you already started. Come on, _two_ kids per woman, doesn't that sound great?"

"I think two between us is enough, mister," Lissa replied, letting go of his hand to move it to caressing Maribelle's leg. "Now how about we put the kids we do have to bed and go, well, spend some time together as the three best lovers anyone could ask for?"

No one was going to object to that, especially not the woman in the middle, who was still slightly taken aback at what they all had just come up with. When she'd gotten involved with Gaius, she hadn't expected that her life would somehow become dictated by a certain number, from the number of lovers she had to the number of kids and everything in between. Two simply must have been Maribelle's lucky number…or maybe twenty-two?

* * *

 **A/N: I should explain myself. This fic was written as a prompt fill for a fic exchange I was in charge of (and part of), but the funny part is that the ship I guess I focus on most wasn't one that was requested. Maribelle/Lissa was requested, as was Maribelle/Gaius, but I wanted to write both-and somehow ended up writing more of a Lissa/Gaius fic than anything else. Whoops.**

 **I really hope you enjoyed this, Meghan! c:**


End file.
